Analysing recreational values and management effects in an urban forest with the visitor-employed photography method

Abstract

Urban woodland management usually requires trade-offs between biodiversity conservation and promotion of recreational values. Preference studies have shown that people in general prefer semi-open forests with little undergrowth rather than unmanaged forests with dense understory and an abundance of dead wood. In this study the visitor employed photography (VEP) method was used to evaluate visitors’ perceptions of an urban forest. Volunteers were given cameras and asked to take pictures of the places that they liked and disliked the most along a trail with varied forest vegetation in a near-urban recreational area in Gothenburg, Sweden. The survey was conducted on two occasions, in April and September. Photo content in combination with the participants’ comments in their photo-logs was analysed with particular focus on features related to understory density, dead wood and visible human impact. The analyses of photo content suggested that the main differences in the participants’ preferences were between natural and human-made objects or landscapes. Pictures of natural objects were mostly classified as “liked”, while “disliked” was dominant among the pictures of human impact. Future VEP studies in urban woodlands should preferably include participants with a wider span in age and background than in the present study. The photo and analysis procedure could be changed, depending on local key-issues regarding management or conservation planning. This study has shown that the visitor employed photography method can be used as a quantitative method to evaluate perceptions about forest vegetation and management in urban woodlands, and could serve as a valuable complement to conventional methods in preference research.

Introduction

Management of urban woodlands receives growing attention as the ongoing process of urbanisation makes these forests increasingly important for public health and well-being (Rydberg and Falck, 2000, Matsuoka and Kaplan, 2008, Jorgensen and Gobster, 2010, Ward Thompson, 2010). Peoples’ preferences for forest structures and silvicultural treatments have mostly been surveyed with off-site methods, including mailed questionnaires, interviews, photo elicitation and virtual landscape simulations (Dorwart et al., 2006, Gundersen and Frivold, 2008, Jorgensen and Gobster, 2010). Methodological comparisons between surveys based on photos and on-site field visits have shown that carefully selected photos or simulated landscapes can be a valid substitute for field assessments (Hultman, 1983, Kellomäki and Savolainen, 1984). In most preference studies, the respondents have been asked to rank or assess landscape photos that were presented to them by the researchers and were, therefore, separated from the actual contexts of recreation activities in judging landscape stimuli. Approaches which tend to focus on the relationships between human activities and landscape perception in real contexts have been used recently (Oku and Fukamachi, 2006, Garrod, 2008). Visitor employed photography (VEP), which was conducted first by G.J. Cherem in the 1970s, is a technique which involves giving cameras to research subjects and asking them to take photographs to illustrate their personal views or experiences. The method actually captures the dynamic perceptual interaction as it happens, and better represents the conditions under examination than off-site methods such as photo elicitation surveys (Cherem and Driver, 1983, Dorwart et al., 2006). In earlier studies, VEP has been used to analyse landscape preferences, outdoor recreation experiences, community planning and sense of place (Yamashita, 2002, Stedman et al., 2004, Oku and Fukamachi, 2006, Beckley et al., 2007). Although VEP has mostly been used as a qualitative method in earlier studies, it also has potential for quantitative analyses of photo content, e.g. vegetation structure and the presence of structures of importance to biodiversity conservation.

Urban woodlands are highly influenced by human use but they have also been shown to have relatively high values of biodiversity (Mörtberg and Wallentinus, 2000, Rickets and Imhoff, 2003, Angold et al., 2006, Hedblom and Söderström, 2008). Multiple use of urban woodlands may lead to conflicts in interests regarding management and trade-offs between different management goals may be necessary (Gadow, 2002). There are, however, relatively few studies that deal with the problem of management trade-offs between biodiversity conservation and recreational values (Tyrväinen et al., 2003). In general, preference studies have shown that people prefer semi-open forests with large trees and little undergrowth (Ribe, 1989, Bjerke et al., 2006, Gundersen and Frivold, 2008).

In this study, I used the VEP method to analyse how visitors experienced different types of forest structure and management along a trail in an urban forest. The participants were asked to take a limited number of photos of the places that they liked and disliked the most along a defined forest trail. Analyses of photo content in combination with photo-logs were then used to investigate the participants’ perception of the urban forest with particular focus on questions regarding forest management and trade-offs between aesthetic values and biodiversity conservation. Forests with large amounts of dead wood, dense understory and other features that are associated with high conservation values have been shown to be among the least appreciated for recreational purposes (Hultman, 1983, Ribe, 1989, Tyrväinen et al., 2003, Gundersen and Frivold, 2011). Management aiming to increase recreational values, such as removal of shrubs and small trees, can negatively affect forest biodiversity. A survey of forest vegetation in 100 Swedish cities confirmed that clearance of woody understory was commonly applied in urban woodlands (Hedblom and Söderström, 2008). Management experiments have shown that bird abundance and diversity can be reduced by clearance of woody understory (e.g. Rodewald and Smith, 1998, Camprodon and Brotons, 2006, Heyman, 2010). Dead wood is vital for the survival of several threatened forest organisms (e.g. Jonsell et al., 1998, Jonsson et al., 2005) but the occurrence of dead wood is usually disfavoured by the general public (e.g. Lacaze, 2000, Lindhagen and Hörnsten, 2000, Gundersen and Frivold, 2008). The occurrence of dead wood and the density of woody understory are two key-issues in the management of urban woodlands and were, therefore, chosen as focus areas in the analysis of the participants’ forest pictures. The first object of the study was to test whether the number of “liked” and “disliked” pictures of different forest structures and other objects were different among participants. The second aim was to evaluate the use of visitor employed photography as a quantitative method and compare the results of the study with earlier preference studies that have used off-site methods such as photo elicitation.